Drug trafficking, corruption, and violence in Mexico: mapping the linkages

Drug trafficking, drug-related violence and drug-related corruption have come to dominate Mexican politics in the late 2000s. Most consider corruption central to both the illicit trade and to the government’s war on it. But such relationships have yet to be fully examined and raise a number of questions. This paper explores the links among these variables. The opening section grapples with the theoretical puzzle. It lays out the different types of drug-related corruption and violence and explores in detail the three binary relationships with particular attention to plomo o plata and the possible inverse connection between corruption and violence. Noting that corruption was once associated with relatively peaceful drug trafficking under the PRI but today is tied to violence, the second section addresses the historical puzzle and asks how the complex relationship among these variables has changed in recent years. The final section explores the various dynamic linkages between drug-trafficking violence and corruption. The theoretical discussion is supplemented by examples from Mexico during the current period.     

Modified cobalt thiocyanate presumptive color test for ketamine hydrochloride

A new presumptive color test for ketamine hydrochloride is reported. The test is a modification of the cobalt thiocyanate test currently used for cocaine and involves basifying samples rather than acidifying them. The two-step procedure for liquids and three-step procedure for powdered samples are straightforward, definitive, and utilize reagents commonly used in forensic drug analysis. The test works on ketamine hydrochloride in both powder and liquid form and has a sensitivity of c. 1.25 mg. Performing the test with numerous other controlled substances and related chemicals demonstrates the test to be highly selective.     

Statistical Inference and Forensic Evidence: Evaluating a Bullet Lead Match

This experiment tested the ability of undergraduate mock jurors (N=295) to draw appropriate conclusions from statistical data on the diagnostic value of forensic evidence. Jurors read a summary of a homicide trial in which the key evidence was a bullet lead "match" that was either highly diagnostic, non-diagnostic, or of unknown diagnostic value. There was also a control condition in which the forensic "match" was not presented. The results indicate that jurors as a group used the statistics appropriately to distinguish diagnostic from non-diagnostic forensic evidence, giving considerable weight to the former and little or no weight to the latter. However, this effect was attributable to responses of a subset of jurors who expressed confidence in their ability to use statistical data. Jurors who lacked confidence in their statistical ability failed to distinguish highly diagnostic from non-diagnostic forensic evidence; they gave no weight to the forensic evidence regardless of its diagnostic value. Confident jurors also gave more weight to evidence of unknown diagnostic value. Theoretical and legal implications are discussed.     

Early Exposure to Violence in the Family of Origin and Positive Attitudes towards Marital Violence: Chinese Immigrant Male Batterers vs. Controls

This study examined self-reported early exposure to violence in the family of origin and positive attitudes towards marital violence as risk factors in court-referred Chinese immigrant male batterers (N = 64) versus controls (N = 62). Early exposure to violence was positively correlated with marital violence, but it alone did not differentiate the batterers from the controls, as both groups were widely exposed to it. While it was significantly correlated with marital violence in the batterer group, it was significantly correlated with depression in the control group. Positive attitudes towards marital violence were not only correlated with marital violence but also sufficient to differentiate the batterers from the controls. It also partially mediated the effect of early exposure to violence on marital violence. These two risk factors together accounted for 21.9% of the variance in marital violence over and above sociodemographic variables and marital dissatisfaction. Research and treatment implications based on these findings were outlined.

Advancing E‐Government at the Grassroots: Tortoise or Hare?

American grassroots governments have rushed to join the e-government revolution. Although there is a growing body of e-government literature, little of it is empirical. Using data from two nationwide surveys, we conduct a longitudinal examination of local government adoption of e-government, Web site sophistication, the perceived impacts of e-government, and barriers to the adoption and sophistication of e-government. We also discuss correlates of e-government adoption and sophistication with selected institutional factors. We find that e-government adoption at the grassroots is progressing rapidly (if measured solely by deployment of Web sites). However, the movement toward integrated and transactional e-government is progressing much more slowly. Continuing research, particularly longitudinal study, is needed to monitor the evolution of e-government among U.S. local governments, especially to keep pace with the practice and to ascertain the actual impacts of e-government.     

GC-quandrupole mass fragmentography of heroin.

Quantitative analysis by quadrupole mass fragmentography is a rapid and accurate method for assay. Its advantage is fundamentally the requirement for very small sample sizes. One must allude to the disadvantage of these techniques in the preparation of a deuterated internal standard (if not commercially available) and operator experience with sophisticated instrumentation. By extrapolating the signal intensities to the baseline intersection (no response) assuming optimal gas chromatographic conditions, 0.5 ng of heroin injected on column appears to be the limit of detection by the above-referenced equipment.     

Soldiering on: The Reagan Administration and Redemocratisation in Chile, 1983–1986

This article examines the circumstances in which the Reagan administration began to rethink its support of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and shift toward advocating a return to democratic civilian rule. It argues this shift was closely related to calculations that US interests might best be served by severing ties with the incumbent regime, but only so long as two vital interrelated issues were resolved to Washington's satisfaction: the nature of the movement likely to inherit political power, and the survival of key institutions of the autocratic Chilean state. To the extent that the incoming government did not portend a challenge to existing constitutional and economic arrangements, and to the extent that the ‘old’ military – the perceived ultimate guarantor against any kind of radical transformation – was in a position to survive the transition with its power and prerogatives intact, a ‘regime change’ could be supported, and even actively promoted. These twin concerns shaped and influenced a US commitment to democracy in Chile that was more contingent than principled, reflected in the constraints US policymakers imposed upon themselves in regard to the types of pressures they were prepared to apply to achieve their preferred outcome.     

Constructing a social safety net in Africa: An institutionalist analysis of colonial rule and state social policies in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire

This article attempts to explain why, despite nearly identical cultural and economic landscapes and the potentially homogenizing pressures of globalization, social policies differ in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, two neighboring countries in West Africa. In Ghana, the government has generally attempted to strengthen the informal social welfare systems of the extended family and community through a more decentralized social policy, whereas the government in Côte d'Ivoire has tried to replace these informal social networks with the centralized arm of the bureaucracy. The article shows how different legacies of colonial rule produce these divergent social policies in a complex and iterative process over time. While domestic institutions do mediate the effects of globalization, the domestic factors highlighted in this article are not the formal political institutions cited in most studies. Rather, the analysis reveals the critical role of informal institutions, or normative frameworks, that existed under colonial rule and continue to endure in the post-colonial state. The article also contributes to current theories of institutions by showing how formal and informal institutions dynamically interact in the construction of the state and the African family.     

Embodying the Law:Coker and Osamor v. The Lord Chancellorand the Lord Chancellor's Department [2002]I.R.L.R. 80 (Court of Appeal)

In Britiain, it is unlawful,regardless of the motive of the discriminator,to refuse to give a woman a job because of hersex. On the other hand, the U.K. case ofCoker and Osamor v. The Lord Chancellor and theLord Chancellor's Department suggests that itis permissible, by `pre-selecting' anindividual man, to rule out any possible femalecandidates. The singular facts of this caseshould not disguise the troubling conclusionthat while sex (and race) discrimination maysometimes be blatant and deliberate, morefrequently it is subtle and routine. Furthermore, discrimination is much moredifficult to challenge, let alone eradicate,when it is embedded in the system. This notestarts from the premise that, while sexequality requires more than the appointment ofwomen to influential posts, that is, at least,a start and if it is decided in advance thatappointments will be made only from a smallcircle of `acceptable' people there is a realdanger that the idea of the `establishment' asa self-perpetuating (white) male enclave willbe confirmed.